Worcester's Belmont St. bridge project will snarl traffic

Wednesday

Mar 6, 2013 at 9:00 PMMar 6, 2013 at 10:01 PM

By Nick Kotsopoulos TELEGRAM & GAZETTE STAFF

A planned $9.8 million project to replace the bridge on Belmont Street that goes over Interstate 290 has raised concerns about the impact it will have on traffic in that part of the city during construction.

The four lanes for traffic that now exists on Belmont Street, between Lincoln Square and UMass Memorial Medical Center — Memorial Campus, will be reduced to just two during construction.

“It's pretty much going to be one lane up (Belmont Street) and one lane down as this project is going on,” said District 2 City Councilor Philip P. Palmieri. “I'm really concerned this is going to make an already congested traffic situation on Belmont Street even worse.

“I mean, it could really bottle things up,” he added. “You may need to fly by helicopter to get around that part of the city.”

Mr. Palmieri has arranged for state transportation officials to make a public presentation of the Belmont Street bridge replacement project Tuesday.

The session will be held at 8 a.m. in Knowles Hall, located in the Jaquith Building at the UMass Memorial Medical Center — Memorial Campus.

He said state transportation officials held a public hearing on the project Jan. 31 at Worcester Technical High School, but less than a dozen people attended.

He blamed the low turnout on the hearing not being well publicized.

“This project is supposed to begin next year, but it's really been flying under the radar,” Mr. Palmieri said. “A lot of people I've talked to don't know anything about it, what it's all about or how it's going to impact them. It's important to make people aware of this, let them know they can hear a presentation about this project and give them an opportunity to ask questions or make suggestions.”

The project is now at the 25 percent design stage.

The Belmont Street bridge over I-290 is being replaced because of its non-standard features, such as insufficient vertical clearance beneath it, and its deteriorating condition, according to state transportation officials.

They said the proposed bridge will be a two-span, continuous steel girder structure with a reinforced concrete deck.

While the new bridge will be constructed in basically the same footprint as the existing bridge, with the same length, it will be built about 15.5 feet wider on its south side.

Transportation officials said the widening is necessary so two lanes of traffic can be maintained at all times during construction, as well as allow for the addition of a dedicated left-turn lane from the westbound lane of Belmont Street (Route 9) onto I-290 at the completion of the project.

In addition, the profile of the bridge will be raised slightly from the existing profile by about 10 inches, to maximize the vertical clearance under the bridge for I-290 traffic.

In total, 3,365 feet of roadway work will be done as part of the project, in addition to the bridge reconstruction.

That includes 965 feet along Belmont Street, 200 feet for the I-290 off-ramp, 600 feet along the I-290 on-ramp, 100 feet along Converse Street and 1,500 feet along I-290.

Because that portion of Belmont Street will be reduced from four lanes to two during construction, state transportation officials said left turns will need to be temporarily restricted at all intersections through the work area.

Those intersections include both I-290 ramps, Converse Street, Oak Avenue, Liberty Street and a church parking lot on the northwest corner of the bridge

The construction site will be configured to allow left turns for emergency vehicles if needed, according to project details.

With the left-turn restrictions, message board and detour routes will be marked to advise the use of alternate routes.

Because left turns from Belmont Street will not be allowed at the I-290 on- and off-ramps during construction, motorists will be directed to use the MLK Boulevard exist as an alternate route.

State transportation officials said there will not be a significant impact to traffic along I-290 during the project and there will be no long-term lane reductions on that roadway.

But Mr. Palmieri said he is most concerned about the traffic that normally uses Belmont Street will begin using residential streets in that area to avoid traffic bottlenecks.

He pointed out that Belmont Street is home to a major hospital (UMass Memorial), medical office buildings, churches, major housing complexes (Belmont Towers and Seabury Heights) schools (Elm Park Community and Worcester Technical High School, which is located off Belmont Street on Skyline Drive), as well a number of homes and stores.

“All this traffic is going to have to go somewhere; I don't know how it's all going to fit in just two lanes without there being some kind of negative impact,” Mr. Palmieri said.

Reporter Nick Kotsopoulos can be reached at nkotsopoulos@telegram.com.